Page 55 of Elsie's Strong Shelter

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Dean’s hands trembled as he scrubbed them over his face, replaying the last few moments he had with Elsie to Sadie. “I swear, it couldn’t have been five minutes that passed between Elsie disappearing around the corner of the building to when I realized she was missing. Ten minutes tops.”

Mr. and Mrs. Sweet sat at one of the picnic tables, Jimmy between them, and spoke in hushed tones to Tommy.

Boo whined at his side. He sniffed the air and strained at the leash.

Sadie nodded toward the dog. “Have you let him roam and catch her scent?”

“First thing I did,” Dean said. “He led me to an empty parking spot. He’s got her. I know that sonofabitch snuck her right out from under my damn nose. Guessing he got a hold of her mom’s phone and lured her away.”

Sadie glanced behind her where Mrs. Sweet sat with tears streaming down her face, her arms wrapped tightly around a confused and terrified Jimmy. “She still hasn’t found it?”

“Nope. She dumped everything out of that giant purse and it’s nowhere. She swears she had it when they got here. Sheset it on a bench away from the playground. Justin must have snatched it when we weren’t looking.” His chest tightened, and he rubbed the heel of his hand over his sternum. Fear gnawed at the pit of his stomach and grew with each passing second. “She blames herself. Dammit, Sadie, we have to find her. Please tell me you guys have something we can use to get her back.”

“I wish I could. We still haven’t located him. Owen is at the station looking into other leads. We have to be close.”

Tommy walked over, anger and worry clear on his face. He turned so his back faced Elsie’s family. “They’re a wreck. I told them to take Jimmy and head home. There’s nothing else they can do.”

“I want to talk to them. Give me a second.” Dean approached the trio with Boo at his side. Anxiety dampened his palms. Not too long ago he’d spoken to Elsie’s dad about kids and marriage and the possibility of Elsie being the right woman.

Now he had to face him with zero answers and no clue where his daughter might be.

Mr. Sweet rose from the table and took a few steps away from his wife. His eyes were red and glassy. The wrinkles running across his forehead had deepened in the last twenty minutes. “Anything?”

Boo leaned against Mr. Sweet’s legs.

Dean shook his head, and Mr. Sweet’s face crumpled. It took all of Dean’s effort not to follow suit. Terror clawed at him from the inside out, causing a streak of pain to flash so bright it threatened to bring him to his knees.

But he couldn’t fall, couldn’t crumple under the unrelenting pressure when Elsie’s life was in the balance.

“I’m sorry,” he said, clearing the rising emotion from his throat. “But I promise you, I’ll do whatever it takes to find Elsie and bring her home safely.”

His phone vibrated against his leg. He grabbed his device and a tiny bit of relief unwound the tension wrapped around his neck. “I have to take this. Why don’t you and your wife head home with Jimmy? I’ll call if I hear anything.”

Mr. Sweet swallowed hard and ran a hand along Boo’s back. “Okay. I’m trusting you to bring her home. You got me?”

The expectation was like a two-ton weight on his chest, but it was nothing more than what he planned. “I do. If you’ll excuse me.”

Stepping away, he took the call. “Calvin? Tell me you found something. Anything.” The plea scraped against his raw throat, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was Elsie.

“I finally connected with that friend of Justin’s I told you about. Said that they didn’t keep in contact much after Justin hooked up with Malcom. They tried to rope this guy into their business, and he wasn’t having it.”

“Good for him,” Dean said, a bite in his voice. He didn’t have the patience to hear mundane details about some guy. “But what about that can I use?”

Calvin didn’t miss a beat. “Justin was a friend of his since elementary school and stayed in touch. Last time he spoke with him was before Justin moved in with his grandma. Told this guy his mom and stepdad were driving him crazy. That he’d been staying in the clubhouse the two of them had built back in the woods when they were younger so he didn’t have to listen to his stepdad bitch at him to get a job.”

Adrenaline zipped through Dean’s veins. His pulse raced. “Where’s the clubhouse?”

“On Justin’s mom’s property.”

The answer was like a sucker punch in the jaw, and Mr. Sweet’s words from earlier came back. “Shit. The mines.”

“What mines?” Calvin asked.

“Pull up a map of Jackie Thomas’ property. See if there are any old mines on her land.”

The sound of Calvin pounding on a keyboard reached Dean’s ears. “Okay. I’m looking at the property now. Wow, she owns a lot of land, but I don’t know how to tell if there are mines there or not.”

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